I’m truly amazed by the quality and range of free music making software available today. I’ve written an article about how you could literally set up a whole studio for no money at all. Covering free DAWs, synths, effects and more. Check it out here

Ah crowdfunding has brought us a a great many awesome things, awesome music videos, insane gadgets and reboots of long dead media franchises (even an attempt to rescue the ailing Greek economy). However one of the things that I love the most are the crazy music controllers that people are coming up with. Often looking and behaving completely unlike anything remotely musical before, these could really represent the vanguard of future music production and performance. Or a hiliarious looking desk ornament that will serve mainly as a dust magnet once the novelty has worn off. I’ll let you decide for yourself which these beauties are

Expressiv MIDI guitar

OK, this is not the first time that someone has made a hybrid electric guitar and MIDI controller but this rocks some features that are truly unique. Firstly it will detect notes just from your left hands position on the fretboard effectively freeing up your strumming hand to operate the modulation controls, a mouse or perhaps a beer. Secondly, on the subject of the modulation controls, it has a playstation style analog stick instead of the normal modwheels, ribbons etc, so you can add a shinku-hadoken to your shredding (It also has buttons and a touchpad for crazy control schemes). Most importantly, perhaps is the fact they’ve built a light tunnel into the body! Anyone who knows my natural affinity towards glowing objects will appreciate how exciting that is for me. It also plugs into an amp and operates as a regular electric guitar. They’re in production at the moment. Expect to pay $500 on kickstarter to preorder yours

Drumpants

Hey if you’ve never slapped your thighs in time to a song, you probably have a terminal lack of joie de vivre. I mean isn’t the lap natures drumkit? Likewise the impulse to tap one’s foot in time to a tune is pretty much obligatory for listening to music. Some smart guys and gals have decided to harness this into a a collection of smart sensors that attach to your thighs and feet to convert your leg drumming into legendary drumming. They’re even making a version to help people with ALS and other movement disorders communicate more effectively, which definitely ups the awesomeness of this project. They’re actually being released very soon, with an estimated shipping date of September. You can preorder the basic set on indiegogo for $159

MIDI sprout

I know many exponents of the theory that talking to plants helps them grow, what if your plants could sing back though. Wouldn’t that make the world a better place? Quite possibly, or it could be one step closer to unleashing the Triffids, who knows? What I do know is that this black box (or white box in this case) translates the galvanic response of plants into MIDI signals that can be used to control your favourite music software. According to their campaign page it will also work with objects other than plants, including humans, pets and ice creams. Its apparently being tested at the moment and is available to preorder for $95 on Kickstarter

Spaceharp

On of the first performances of electronic music that I remember was Jean Michel Jarre taking over several city blocks playing his iconic laser harp. The Spaceharp takes things, umm a little further. Not content with just lasers that you break with your hand, this thing has Sonar, Shadow sensors and a whole range of buttons and other controls to create some crazy laser harp/kinect/theramin hybrid. And boy, does it have a price tag to match… $1900! You could set up a pretty decent starter studio for that. Still it looks amazing and is probably a very cool way of really using your body to play, available to preorder on indiegogo (it also comes in a 2-pack for $3700, you know, so you could get one for yourself and one for me to test out. Just saying)

RemoFinger

Anyone who has used a tablet for music production will usually tell the same story: multitouch = amazing, lack of tactile feedback = a right pain in the derriere. In order to counteract this there are a number of controllers available for iPad but they all have the same Achilles heel, software support. This can be a real pain if you’ve found a real gem of an app but the only way you can control it is by tapping the screen. The Remofinger niftily skirts this problem by actually having attachments that stick on you screen and replicate the touch of a human finger. As the pedal set implies, this is squarely aimed at guitarists aiming to change effects. However I see a whole range of control possibilities (and no not playing flappy bird with your foot). This has (at the time of writing) not reached its target of funding yet, although it is doing pretty well. I really want to see this happen, if you do too show your support on Kickstarter

Well there you go, there’s your 5. Perhaps once they’re all released someone could combine the lot into the maddest looking one man band ever (especially with the potplant you’d need to strap to your back to operate the MIDI sprout).

The latest version of my DAW of choice has been released, its all quite exciting.

Looking forward to trying out some new features, especially the updated piano roll and mixer. That and the crazy modular looking plugin chainer that they’ve added. Also Automatic Plugin Delay Compensation has finally been added (well in a major upgrade at least) . That means I can finally crack out some of my weirder audio processing plugins that were too laggy to use live before, Spektral Delay anyone? For a full list of stuff that they’ve put in as they edge ever closer to 11 look here

I’m also looking forward to trying out the two pitch correction plugins that they’ve released. They’re currently being sold in the ‘pay what you think they’re worth’ style that Image-Line have initially released most of their recent plugins with, so its definately worth getting them while they’re still a tenner (or more, your choice). Don’t expect any hideous auto-tuned to hell pop ballads coming from the Dataphiles stable, maybe some trippy tuned noisescapes.

Anyway, expect to read more when I have had a chance to try all of the above out.

Now if you’ve yet to sample the delights of FL Studio, download the demo and give it a go, there maybe a great producer lurking inside of you. Actually wait a sec that just sounds creepy. Oh well you get the idea.

Prices for the full version start at about £50, or £100 for the version you probably want if you’re getting serious. Pretty cheap considering you get free lifetime upgrades and a 10% discount if you use my affiliate link to buy it, or any other Image Line. So what’re you waiting for?

Version 9 of my favourite DAW was released last week. Having given it a proper go now I’m really impressed

Here are my favourite new features

– It was free (OK not actually a new feature but this is by far and away my favourite thing about every FL update, as once you buy it you get lifetime free updates)

– Riff machine – A new and very funky feature is the riff machine that can create lines and melodies in a variety of ways, from completely random to interpreting an existing score

– Sidechaining – While sidechaing effects were possible in previous versions using the peak controller, allowing multiple (seperate) inputs to each mixer channel is definately a long wanted addition. Means I can use some of those cool multi-input Reaktor ensembles

-Vocodex – I have to say this is possibly the most flexible vocoder I’ve ever seen, pretty much everything is tweakable and it uses the multiple inputs feature really well. In all honesty explaining all its features would be a blog post all in itself

– Better Fruity wrapper – Much improved VSTi/DXi handling options

– GUI overhaul – The new version depinately looks prettier, especially the way it handles plug-ins without their own GUIs. Also several graphical tweaks have the whole environment easier on the eyes. While this might not seem important, if you spend 3 hours staring a screen it can make a big difference

– Autogun – A new free addition to the fruity synth library, based on their recent Ogun synth. It has only a couple of controls and a huge (>4 billion) number of randomly generated (and named) presets. I usually like fiddling around with a synths controls but there is something fun about browsing through the library especially if you need a little inspiration. I would however say you should definately add an EQ to it to knock those sounds into shape. Even if you don’t use FL you can still download the (also free) VST version here and give it a go

– Mid/side tools – Its a nice little addition

– Pattern muting – definately smooths out the workflow

And here’s my wishlist for new features

– Please Image-Line add a freeze pattern/channel function. It would be really helpful

– Other than that I’m pretty happy 😉

That just about sums it up… expect to hear some tracks made in it soon.

Also if you’re thinking of buying it, you can get a 10% discount on it if you know someone who’s already bought it through their affilliate scheme. Seeing as you know me (at least in a virtual sense) click here to get your discount.